Eight days out

It's been eight days since I had my gastric sleeve procedure. I ended up spending five days in the hospital thanks to my blood pressure getting thrown out-of-whack as a result of the surgery. Add to it an acute gout attack in my left foot (which made walking extremely painful), and I will admit is was a rough start to my new life.

But now I've been home for a few days and am getting settled into a routine for taking meds and getting all of my supplements in. I am still struggling to get in all of my protein needs because I keep experimenting with different protein powders and am finding all of them downright disgusting. Fortunately my nutritionist has approved a protein shake I was drinking before surgery and it still tastes good.

Walking is still a chore. I am very discouraged that I cannot get out and walk more without my foot being in pain. There are no practical medicines that I can take for the gout attack, so I am trying an old-fashioned treatment of drinking cherry juice (diluted with water) to try and end this setback. Today is day two of that treatment and I am still waiting on major results.

Needless to say, I am very frustrated right now. I do not feel like my old self; my energy levels are in the toilet. And even though my stomach doesn't hurt from the numerous incisions, I still don't feel like doing much of anything. I'm sure part of this is psychological; I am mentally adapting to the new ways of eating and drinking and am struggling to leave the old habits behind. But it kind of feels like there is more to it, but I cannot figure out why I feel that way.

I don't regret being sleeved. I know it was the right move to make for my health and my future. I guess I just didn't realize how run-down I would feel afterward. I had mentally set myself up for walking around the day of surgery and being out several times a day to walk and that hasn't materialized. Maybe a part of me feels like a failure because of that. I just don't know.

So I am just trying to maintain my schedule, get out one or two times a day, and hopefully get my strength and energy levels built back up. I keep telling myself this is just temporary. I hope I'm right.